April 17th, 2006 by Jason Roe
Online advertising was something that in my mind hasn’t changed that much over the years, sure the technology has moved with the times but what has really changed? Well it seems that most companies in the area of online marketing have kept the fundamentals, publishers + advertiser = cash. It seems that every “new� technology in this area is a spin off of something that has come before it. I have to admit some of these new mediums have worked extremely well, a prefect example was the ever talked about million-dollar home page.
So with all these new fandangle mediums banging about how do you know what one is for you? After working on a re-development of an Irish site called Irish ISP Test I realised how powerful google adsense was for a publisher. Without going into specifics of the project, I realised quite quickly that google adsense advertisements could have paid for the entire re-development costs within less than one month. This could be down to the colossal amount of traffic received every month, or the fact that it was also a useful tool who knows?
The adsense experiences made me think in great depth about this whole advertising situation. From a publisher point of view the “adsense way� seems to be the ideal way to make money, however I feel that the advertiser are getting the raw end of the stick in some respects. Sure the advertisers are getting buckets of traffic that’s targeted, segmented, poked and prodded and then finally delivered but they are also missing out on other opportunities.
Lets go back to basics for a second to an old tradition called link swapping, this was a phenomenon that went on for years and still does to this date, blogs being a prime example of this. Not only does it advertise your site it also boosts your rankings and increases your PR, in some cases its not as targeted but never the less it works. So where am I going with this? I stumbled upon a service called TextLinkAds, I’m sure it’s not completely unique however it uses this kind of link swapping ideology.
TextLinkAds seems to be an interesting alternative to adsense, in some respects it resembles the “Advertise on this site� feature offered by adsense. What makes it different is the fact that TextLinkAds provides you with a full directory of publisher sites. This directory gives you relevant information that can help you choose where you would like to advertise. The advantage of this system is that you pay a flat fee per month (no pay per click) for each site you advertise on, for this fee you get a direct link on the website meaning that not only are you advertising you are also boosting your organic search engine rankings.
So to conclude there are many options for advertiser and publishers alike its best to shop around and get the best all round deal. Try new things explore new services and pick the ones that suit you. Id welcome peoples comments on online marketing and advertising services.
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February 13th, 2006 by Jason Roe
In my experience the natural flow of a website seems to be some times overlooked by designers, this is a common mistake that can have drastic implications. If a user can’t find relevant information on your website you are doing something wrong. This often highlighted by emails or calls that go something like this .. “I was looking on your website but I couldn’t find X or Y”….”the user is not looking hard enough” I hear you all cry!!! However why should a user have to look hard for information that should be easily available?
With all this in mind I went about constructing a basic layout. I tried two possible layouts which are fairly simple, one design with a left sided navigation and another with a right sided. Although this normally seems like a very small detail it really affects the way content is read and perceived. The final layout looks something like the image shown on the right.
The simple design means everything is only one click away from the main page. Creating a simple navigational flow helps users to navigate and find your relevant information quickly. Interlinking related pages such as linking the services page with specific products you will improve the quality of the information because its is much more acessable. This kind of infomation can often be missed by users while browsing.
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February 13th, 2006 by Jason Roe
Over the past two years my focus has been on growing new business and finding new contacts, this has lead to a steady cash flow however most of this business has been found through a more direct selling approach. To date my web site has brought in no new business.
This lead me to start exploring how I can get my website working for me, in the hope of bring in new sales or enquires. I decided that I had to start practicing what I have been preaching for so long. The concept seems simple enough however there are many complications in the design/development process.
Before I started designing or implementing my new web strategy I had to work out what exactly I wanted to achieve and how I wanted to be perceived by the outside world. At first I thought this would be simple enough, as I have done this countless times with first time clients, however I found it quite challenging to say the least.
When I started looking at what I do in detail it became quite obvious to me why my old website had not enticed people into doing business with me. The website lacked a lot of vital information and had no clear definition of who I was, what I did and what I can do for you. This was something that I felt had to be resolved.
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February 1st, 2006 by Jason Roe
I was recently asked to design a new logo for Search.ie as you may know this site is maintained by Michele Neylon. The previous logo was also designed by me however I always found it lacking something. The rework was a fairly simple one, a crisp clean logo that had the same theme as the old one.
This is what I came up with:
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January 31st, 2006 by Jason Roe
I was reading an interesting article on Michele Neylon’s blog regarding a company who are relying on 3rd parties to make changes to a website. This seems to be a common mistake that companies make when getting a website developed. In my opinion this highlights the cost saving aspects that can be made by investing in a content management system when getting your website developed.
Some of the customers that I have worked with in the past have opted not to make this investment because of the initial cost of implantation, however in the long run it has cost them a small fortune in both in-house or external maintenance contracts. I always try to outline these benefits to customers before they sign any contract.
A good development company should always try to make life easier for their customers. However some companies seem to ignore this principal, they deem this ongoing work as their “bread and butter� money. Even a reasonably designed content management system should have an easy to use html editor built in these days.
So the moral of the story is choose your development company wisely and always make the extra initial investment as it might just save you’re a small fortune down the road.
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